


All You Have To Do is Ask

by Wherethereissmoak



Series: Julie's Summer 2017 Hiatus Fics [13]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Alternative Universe - No Island, F/M, Ghost Oliver, Olicity Hiatus Fic-A-Thon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-27
Updated: 2017-09-29
Packaged: 2018-12-20 10:06:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11918604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wherethereissmoak/pseuds/Wherethereissmoak
Summary: Felicity has a guardian angel - scratch that - he's more like "Oliver the Friendly Ghost."





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Wow, my brain went to a really weird place with this week's Olicity Hiatus Fic-a-Thon prompt "Ask." And then the story steamrolled out of control, so I decided to post it in two parts. Here is the first, and I will get the second up on Monday or Tuesday.

Oliver watched the girl he loved bleed out in front of him, and there was nothing he could do about it.

“Come on baby, you have to ask me. I can’t help you unless you ask. Please, Felicity…ask.”

She saw her lips take the shape of his name, but she was out before she could call to him. Blood dripped steadily from the bullet holes in her abdomen and mixed with the rain trickling down the street.

Oliver began to push at the barriers that held him into place.

“Are you sure you want to do that, Ollie?” a voice said from behind him. “You know the consequences.”

“I don’t care about the consequences, she’s dying! And it’s my fault! I did the opposite of what I was supposed to do. I’m selfish and weak, and I can’t let this be end of Felicity Smoak.”

The older woman looked at him, a sad smile on her face. “You are willing to give everything up, including your very existence…to save her?”

“Absolutely, I would do anything for her.”

“So be it,” the woman said sadly, and the barrier keeping him from Felicity dropped away. His nerves started to tingle, and he was suddenly aware of the world around him in a different way as each of his senses returned to this body.

Finally corporeal, he rushed to Felicity’s side and took off his jacket to press it on her wounds. He reached into her purse and pulled out her phone, dialing 911. He reported that there was a woman shot, and they needed to send an ambulance immediately.

“Felicity, please, come back to me. Open your eyes, baby. Help is on the way.” He pulled her into his arms, tears rolling down his face.

As if God had granted him one last favor, she awoke, her eyes widening at the sight of him.

“Oliver, how…how are you here?” Her voice was weak, but thankfully Oliver could hear sirens getting louder. They were almost here. When he didn’t speak, Felicity narrowed her eyes at him. She reached up slowly and cupped his cheek with her hand. He closed his eyes at the sensation of her touch. “What did you do, love?” Her voice was sad, because she already knew the answer.

“What I had to. Help is on the way, Felicity. You’re going to be fine.”

Tears trickled down her face.

“I’m not going to be fine, not without you. How could you do this? I didn’t have time to ask for your help and now...”

“Felicity, I had to, there was no choice to make.”

“But not for me, I’m not worth you giving up everything…”

“A world without Felicity Smoak is not a world I want to be a part of at all,” Oliver said, kissing her forehead.

The sirens blared as an ambulance came around the corner. Oliver felt his nerves start to tingle again. This was it, he supposed, this would be the end of Oliver Queen. And he couldn’t think of any place he’d rather be than here with Felicity in his arms, despite the circumstances.

It was time.

“Felicity, the ambulance is here, and they are going to take good care of you,” he whispered into her forehead, not wanting to meet her eyes.

“Oliver, no, you can’t leave. This can’t be goodbye forever. I can’t lose you.”

She was getting herself worked up, and that would make her injuries worse. He needed to leave, but he couldn’t bring himself to.

“You’re going to be fine. Can you do me a favor? Can you check in on Thea from time to time? I know she doesn’t know you, but I feel better going if I know someone is looking out for her…”

Felicity nodded through her sobs. “I promise. Oliver…you can’t…please.”

He started to fade. “I’m sorry, baby. I don’t have a choice in the matter. I love you Felicity Smoak, for always.”

Oliver was able to lay her gently on the ground before his limbs disappeared. He took heart to see the paramedics reach her and treat her.

“Oliver! Oliver!” Felicity screamed, and they had to hold her down to tend to stabilize her injuries.

“I love you too,” was the last thing Oliver heard before everything faded into blackness.

***

_Four years earlier_

“Ollie, I love you, but you haven’t made the best life choices,” his grandmother told him. Oliver was just getting used to seeing Gran standing before him, and now she was throwing shade in his direction.

A few minutes, hours, seconds (Oliver really had no idea how much time had passed), the Queen’s Gambit sank into the ocean and he died. And now he was somehow standing in a white room with his grandmother who had been dead for 10 years.

“We don’t know what to do with you, Oliver. You’ve done so many bad things lately, the drinking, the women. Your girlfriend’s sister? Really, Ollie?”

Oliver hung his head in shame.

“But I fought for you, I know deep down in your heart you are a good man. You are the boy who always came to visit me when my Alzheimer’s was bad and no one else would. You sat by my chair, holding my hand for hours as I rambled on and on recanting tales of my childhood. Even your mother didn’t visit me, but you did.”

Oliver held back tears at her words. He loved his gran so much, and seeing her in that condition had been very hard on him.

“And I just can’t reconcile the boy that did that with the man that has made such awful decisions over the past few years. And we just can’t figure out what the best place is for you. And instead of keeping you here in the middle place between eternal peace or torture, we’re going to give you another chance to prove who you are.”

Oliver lifted his head at his grandmother’s words. “You mean I get to live again.”

Gran pursed her lips. “Not…exactly. We need you to watch over someone, to be with her and support her on the journey ahead. To be her friend.”

“What, like a guardian angel?”

Gran laughed. “No, more like Casper the Friendly Ghost.”

“So I’m supposed to haunt someone? This is kind of weird, Gran.”

“Felicity Smoak is important. She will do great things in this world, but right now she’s all alone in it. She just needs someone to talk to her, and to support her when things don’t go her way or she’s feeling lonely.”

Oliver mulled over his grandmother’s words. Felicity Smoak…he wondered who she was to deserve all this attention from up above.

“So since I’m supposed to be her friend, I can talk to her and she will be able to see me?”

“See, but not touch…so your charming playboy seductions will not help you here,” Gran said with a laugh.

“But what if she’s in danger or something, I won’t be able to help her. And then she won’t be able to do all the amazing things you say she’s going to.”

Gran sighed. “There is a loophole that will allow you to become corporeal, if only for a short time. You can only do so if she asks you to. She has to ask, and it only lasts for about a minute and you have to move quickly.”

This was the strangest conversation Oliver ever recalled having. A ghost? Seriously.

“Well, what happens if she’s in a situation where she can’t ask for help – do I just stand there and I won’t be able to do anything?”

Gran smiled at him. “You always have to push against the rules, don’t you Ollie? I know it always gave your parents heartburn, but it was one of my favorite things about you.”

The mention of his parents sent a pang through Oliver’s heart.

“Mom…Thea…oh my God, my Dad…is he okay? He was on the gambit with me!”

Gran pulled him in for a hug. “I know honey, but you can’t think about them right now. That’s just the reality of your situation. You have to focus on Felicity. And to answer your question – you can break the rules and push through the barrier and become corporeal even if she doesn’t ask you. But it would mean the end of this little experiment.”

“So I would break the rule to save her and they would send me to hell? That’s just great.”

Gran stayed silent on the subject.

“So how long to I have to babysit this girl? How long until you deem me worthy enough to go to the better place?”

Gran smiled sadly at him for another moment. “Until we know for certain what would be the best option for you.”

It was a vague answer, but Oliver had no choice but to accept it. “Make good choices, honey. I believe in you,” Gran said and suddenly Oliver felt like he was falling. He spiraled down until he landed with a thud outside a college dormitory.

“Felicity!” He heard someone yell, and he saw a girl with black hair turn and glare at a boy following her. So this was his girl. Well not his girl, girl, but his girl. She was young, but pretty, despite the fact she wasn’t his usual type. She was dressed in the goth style – all in black, even on her lips.

“I said I was sorry! I just got so excited that we could get into the system. I really wanted to make a difference. I wiped the loans of like 100 students. They can wake up tomorrow worry-free!” The guy approaching Felicity looked like he hadn’t showered in days.

“That’s called stealing, Coop. And I’m not into that.”

“It’s hactivism, those banks will never know it’s missing. Come on, baby, you wanted to change the world. This is where we start.”

Oliver didn’t know much about computer hacking, but he knew this guy was full of bullshit. And he wondered why he felt so angry when “Coop” pulled Felicity into his arms.

“Look, why don’t we just agree to disagree on this one. It’s over, let’s move on. The point is, your code was amazing. And it worked! This is world changing.” Oliver could see Felicity soften at the man’s words.

So maybe this code thing was how his girl was going to accomplish big things, but Oliver had a feeling that it would not be possible if this guy ever got his hands on it.

“Asshole,” Oliver murmured and Felicity looked right at him.

“What?” she asked.

Coop turned around and stared right through him.

“What are you looking at?” he asked her.

“That guy, right there,” Felicity said, pointing to Oliver. Coop just looked around, confused.

“Uh, he can’t hear or see me…only you can. And unless you want him to lock you up for being crazy, I would pretend like I’m not here for a while,” Oliver told the girl with a grin. He was enjoying her shock.

“Felicity, what guy? It’s like two in the morning, there isn’t anyone out here,” Coop told her.

She stared at Oliver in shock for another moment before shaking the expression off her face and gave her companion a fake smile. “Oh nothing, just my mind being loopy from lack of sleep.”

“Come on, let’s get you tucked into bed again,” Coop said suggestively. Oliver practically growled at the boy who wanted to do so much more than sleep with Felicity. The girl in question pointedly ignored her ghost and reached up and kissed the guy who was apparently her boyfriend. Oliver scowled. Why the hell did the powers that be think she was so lonely if she was dating someone?

“Cooper, would you mind if I just went to my room alone tonight? I’m a little sleep deprived and could use some downtime.”

Cooper seemed reluctant to let her go after their fight, but finally he stepped back. “Okay baby, you can make it up to me tomorrow.”

Ugh, this guy is a creeper, Oliver thought. The creep in question sauntered off into the night, and Felicity turned and started toward the dorms as fast as she could. Oliver followed quickly behind.

“Are you stalking me, random hallucination of a hot guy? I mean, if I was going to hallucinate anyone, why would it be this person with a six pack and the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen. How could I dream you up? This is beyond ridiculous. And everyone probably is looking out their windows and thinking I’m talking to myself.”

Oliver smiled at her ramble. He was starting to enjoy this assignment.

“Felicity Smoak, I’m here to haunt you. Help you, I meant help you.” He held out his hand, and Felicity gasped when hers went right through his.

“And I thought hacking the NSA was going to be the strangest part of my night,” she said. “Well, come inside ghost boy, you have a lot of explaining to do.”

She turned and continued inside, Oliver on her heels.

***

Felicity took this whole thing surprisingly well. It wasn’t everyday a ghost showed up and wanted to be your friend so that he could redeem himself, but she had been able to put her arm right through him so she didn’t see the point of not believing him.

Besides, she could use a friend. She had entered the MIT bachelors program at 15, and now that she was in the Master’s program, she was still younger than all of her peers. Having someone to talk to, that didn’t seem to mind her rambles, was kind of nice.

The first night of Oliver’s presence in her life, she listened in awe to his tale about dying and what his grandmother had told him. Felicity promised to do her best to help him find redemption. She was intrigued by the rules of him becoming corporeal when she needed him, filing that information for later.

She spent less and less time with Cooper after that, still seeing her boyfriend a little bit during the day. But at night she would return to her room so that she could talk with Oliver. Although he wasn't solid, he could give the appearance of sitting on the bed next to her. It made him seem more real. Felicity told him all about her childhood growing up in Vegas. About how she had built her first computer before she could tie her shoes, and the pain she felt when her father left her.

Oliver shared stories of some of his antics growing up, but was relatively quiet when it came to talking about his family. He said they were too painful to talk about. He did share his regrets about the things he had done to make his grandmother question whether he was a good man. Felicity wanted nothing more than to squeeze his hand and tell him that she did not see him that way.

Her ghost was quickly becoming her best friend.

The first time he touched her was the day that Cooper was arrested for his hacking and erasing student loans. Her boyfriend had protected her, not telling the authorities that it was her coding that led the hack. Surprisingly, he took the fall for her.

They told her that she wouldn’t be able to visit him until after he was processed, so she returned to her room to curl up into a ball and cry. Oliver sat silently next to her while she did, offering comfort by just being there.

“Felicity, I wish I could do something to help you,” he whispered at one point when her crying became uncontrollable.

“Could you…I mean…I could really use a hug,” she said between sobs.

Oliver leaned forward. “Are you asking me? I think you have to ask for it to work.”

“Oliver, can you please give me a hug?”

Oliver had a strange expression on his face before he suddenly looked more solid. He reached out tentatively and placed a hand on her shoulder. Both of them gasped at the contact.

He held out his arms, and Felicity blushed shyly and entered his embrace, her tears forgotten. Oliver hugged her and rubbed her back for as long as possible. As he started to fade, he laid the blonde IT girl – who fell soundly asleep in less than 30 seconds -- gently on her pillow.

The second time they touched, it was a close call.

“How did you usually get over drama when you were alive?” She asked a few days after Cooper’s arrest.

“You don’t want to do what I did, I usually went out and got wasted,” Oliver said, looking down in shame.

“Sounds like a great idea! It’s time I lived a little!” Felicity grabbed some black party clothes and went into the bathroom to change. She didn’t mind that she didn’t have privacy in her main room because he was always there, she appreciated his company too much to complain about him always being in her space. Especially now that Cooper was gone.

Brushing aside the thoughts of her absent boyfriend, she hurried to get ready. She had never been much of a drinker, but Felicity really felt the need to drown out her sorrows. And having Oliver with her as her invisible-to-others watcher made her feel bolder.

She and her ghost made their way to sorority row, where they were sure to find some parties. She drank a little bit at one, and started to giggle when Oliver growled at any frat boy that got too close to her.

“They’re harmless, Oliver,” she whispered under her breath, hoping no one would think she was talking to herself.

“You forget that I used to be one. I know exactly what is on their mind when they walk up to you with that look on their face,” he told her, his face now fixed with a permanent scowl.

This sent her into another fit of giggles. “Oh, brownies!” She said and followed the plate as someone carried it into the living room.

“You know those have pot in them,” Oliver and the boy carrying the plate said in unison.

“All the better!” Felicity grabbed one and stuffed it in her mouth. “Mmmm…chocolate.” She savored the sweet taste in her mouth, until her throat started closing up. Oh Frak, there must have been nuts in that brownie.

She started coughing and grasping her throat.

“Felicity, are you okay?” Oliver asked frantically.

“Nuts…allergy…pen.”

“You have an epi-pen? Where?”

“Purse.”

Here coughing grew worse, and her vision started to get blurry. She wouldn’t last much longer. She heard someone from the party yell to call 911, but if she didn’t get her epi-pen it would be too late.

“Felicity, listen to my voice. I know you are struggling, but you have to ask. I can’t help unless you ask.”

She coughed a few more times before gasping out. “Oliver…please…help.”

He materialized in an instant, and rummaged through her purse. For the epi-pen before finding it and injecting it in her thigh. Instantly, Felicity felt relief.

“I have to look like I’m going, or it’s going to freak people out,” he whispered in her ear.

Enough people were wondering where the guy who saved her had come from in the first place. Most were focused on her allergy attack and didn’t notice him materialize.

“I’ll meet you outside by the ambulance, in my ghostly form. I’m glad you’re okay,” he smiled at her before brushing her hair behind her ear and leaving the room. Felicity attributed the butterflies in her belly to leftover feelings from her allergy attack. Yep, that had to be it.

Felicity learned her lesson about trying to dull her pain with drugs and alcohol that night, so instead she relied on hugs from Oliver, albeit one minute at a time, to help her feel better. She didn’t want to admit to herself how much his touch affected her. It was pointless to entertain those thoughts anyway, since he was a ghost after all. And she had a boyfriend.

This made her go on a guilt spiral even worse when Cooper hung himself in prison. Instead of clinging to her ghost for support, she pushed him away. Blaming her reliance on Oliver for her not providing Cooper with enough encouragement while locked away.

Oliver watched her grieve in silence, not able to give her the space she desired. Sometimes she would go sit in her bathtub and cry. In these weeks, their situation was hardest for both of them to bear. He wanted to help her, and she wanted to be left alone. Yet they were stuck together.

After some time, she stayed in the same room with Oliver while she cried. She didn’t ever ask him to touch her, but she at least acknowledged his presence again. To make her feel better, he started talking about something that was painful to him – his family.

Oliver shared stories about his mother Moira, the matriarch of his family who he was always afraid was ashamed of him and his antics. Raise, the housekeeper and nanny who practically raised him. His little sister, Thea, who he loved so much and worried about now that he wasn’t there to watch over her. And his dad – who was on the Queen’s Gambit with him and how Oliver didn’t even know if he survived.

Felicity listened to him for hours, her pain and his pain blending together until both their souls were irrevocably entangled.

“Oliver, I’m asking you for a hug,” she said softly, finally washing away the last of her tears. He looked at her in surprise before he materialized and pulled her into his arms for the first time in what felt like forever. Both sighed at the physical contact.

“I wish it could be longer.” Felicity buried her head into his chest, inhaling Oliver’s woodsy scent.

“Me too.” He ran his fingers through her hair.

“It’s tangly, I need to wash it.” Felicity sat up as Oliver began to fade, picking up her strands of hair that he had just touched.

Oliver smiled at her and winked. “Yeah, and your roots are starting to come in.”

“Shut up, you dork.” Felicity threw a pillow at him, but it passed right through him. She stood up and put on her black leather jacket. “Come on, I need to go to the store.”

“Black hair dye?”

She looked in the mirror at her black clothes, dark makeup and black hair. It was time for her to put her grief for Cooper and the hacktivist known as GhostFoxGoddess behind her. “Nope, I think it’s time for a change.”

A few hours later, Felicity emerged from the bathroom, blonde and in brighter clothing. Oliver gaped at her, and she grinned at his shock.

She sat on the bed next to him, choosing her words wisely. Felicity knew he wouldn’t take this conversation well, but she had been prepping for it for a few hours.

“Oliver, since I’m starting to work on moving on, I think it’s time that we start that for you too.”

His eyes widened at her words. “Did you figure out a way to change the world already? Because getting you to that point is pretty much the only way I can move on, I think. Gran was pretty vague about the whole thing.”

 Felicity shook her head at him. “No, I don’t mean moving on spiritually…or whatever. I meant moving on emotionally. It’s time for me to track down your family and see how they are doing. To give you some closure.”

Oliver stood up and paced the room. “I don’t think we should do that Felicity.”

She stood up and tried to look him in the eyes, but he was moving too quickly. Felicity tried to not let his nervous energy become contagious. “Did your gran say that anything like that was forbidden?”

“No, not exactly, but it was pretty clear that this was about you. Me helping you. Having you look into my own family would probably be selfish and lose me points on the ‘good’ scale or whatever it is.”

Felicity had thought about that already. “Well, helping you would help me. I have a plan.”

“Of course you do, you wouldn’t be you if you didn’t.” Oliver grinned at her and butterflies swarmed her belly. Those dimples did things to her. Shoving those irrational thoughts aside, she proceeded to tell him all that she figured out changing her hair color.

“I’m graduating this spring, as you know, and a lot of the top tech companies in the nation are already trying to recruit me. Including one called…” Felicity opened her laptop and pulled up the website she booked this morning. “Queen Consolidated.”

Oliver recoiled. “No, I don’t want you anywhere near there?”

Felicity’s heart sunk at his words. “Why? Do you think that I’m not good enough to work for your family’s company?”

Oliver stopped pacing and came to stand in front of her.

“God, no! That’s not it at all! You’re perfect…I mean you’re amazing at what you do. It’s Queen Consolidated that is not good enough for you. I don’t want you to throw your whole life away just so you can get closer to my family. Besides – you’re a hacker. Can’t you just look all that information on my family up? There’s no need to move there.”

Felicity’s heart clenched at his words. He really had no idea how much he meant to her. How much she would do for him. Standing there seeing him choose her future over his closure, Felicity was finally ready to admit it, she loved Oliver Queen. She was hopelessly and desperately in love with her ghost.

“But Oliver, you can’t tell me that you don’t want to lay eyes on your family. If I’m there, you’re there. You can see them.”

“No.”

“What do you mean, no?”

“I’m not letting you give up everything just so I can see my family.”

Felicity’s hackles raised at his words. She did not respond well to people telling her what to do.

“Well, Oliver Queen there are three things you should know. One, I wouldn’t be giving up anything because Queen Consolidated is actually a very good company. Two, you are not the boss of me and you can’t stop me.”

While she was talking, she had been typing out an e-mail and uploading her resume. She made a dramatic show in hitting “send.” He scowled when she smirked at him. “Too late now, buddy, it’s already sent.”

Oliver threw up his hands in frustration. He looked at her with a mix of annoyance, awe and affection. “Felicity Smoak, if I could touch you right now, I don’t know if I would smack you over the head or kiss you.”

“Oh please, you would never hit a girl…wait…what?” Oliver’s words finally caught up with her. Did he say kiss? The butterflies were back -and they were having a dance party in her tummy now.

Oliver looked suddenly nervous. “I uh…didn’t mean…it was just an expression. Of course I would never smack you.”

Felicity grinned – he was just as jittery as her about his words. Could it be? Did he have feelings for her too? Time to test that theory.

“You said you wanted to kiss me as well.”

“Oh…uh…yeah an expression.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.” Oliver did not meet her eyes.

“Oliver?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m want you to kiss me.”

His head shot up. “What?”

“I’m asking you to kiss me.”

Felicity didn’t need to ask him twice, for Oliver’s very real and warm lips covered her’s within seconds. The touch was light and tentative at first, but they knew they didn’t have much time so the kiss became hot and fevered quickly. She opened her mouth to him, and he explored it with passion, and she returned in kinds.

Felicity let out a mournful cry when the pressure against her lips vanished. Oliver growled in frustration. The two stared at each other wide-eyed, catching their breath (Felicity wondered for a second if Oliver even had breath or if it was just instinct that made him inhale and exhale so heavily).

“We shouldn’t have done that,” Oliver said angrily, starting his pacing again. Felicity rolled her eyes at him. She loved the man, but his inability to stay still was giving her a headache.

“Yes, we should have.”

“Felicity, I’m a ghost! I’m dead! There is literally no future for you and me. You need to find someone who is more...alive to be with.”

He grimaced at his own words, but she just smiled at him. Oliver looked at her like she was crazy.

“That brings us to number three.”

“What?”

“I said before we…uh…kissed that I had three things to tell you and I only got to two of them.”

Oliver sighed. “Okay, so what’s the third.”

“I don’t know why I didn’t even look up any information on you today, but when I was making my plan, all I did was just some Googling and I couldn’t believe it when I saw it. And then I didn’t know how to tell you. I mean, if I could barely handle this information, it probably would be crazy for you.”

Oliver smiled at her ramble. “Felicity, calm down, just tell me what it is and we’ll figure it out.”

Felicity took a deep breath and smiled up at him.

“Oliver Queen, I’m very happy to inform you that you are 100 percent alive.”

 

 

 


	2. Agree to disagree

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver and Felicity cannot agree on his condition, and they decide on a plan to settle it once and for all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *peeks out* Oh hey guys? Remember me? Remember this story! I'm sooooooo sorry it's been so long to update. I've just been dealing with some stuff in real life and that led to zero motivation to write fic. But I'm slowly working my way back! This chapter may be a little rough around the edges, but I hope you still enjoy it! 
> 
> The good news is this fic will be more than two parts as originally planned. The bad news is I can not give you a date for the next update, just know that I am working on it and will not leave it behind. I promise!

It took Oliver several minutes to recover from their kiss, which is why he was hallucinating and he thought that Felicity said that he was alive. He laughed.

Felicity narrowed her eyes at him.

“Oliver, did you hear me? You’re alive.”

Oh. She was serious. “Felicity, what are you talking about. I’m a ghost. The literal definition of not among the living.”

Felicity crossed her arms in annoyance. “Please listen to what I have to say before any more arguments. So your family announced to the world that you were dead, lost at sea, along with your father.”

Oliver sat down on the bed in grief at the news.

“I’m so sorry to have to tell you that, Oliver.”

He figured that Robert Queen had drowned like him, but a small part of him had been hoping that he had somehow survived and made it back to his mom and Thea.

When he didn’t say anything, Felicity continued.

“But when I was looking into your family to prepare myself for the big move to Starling and figure out how I was going to get into the same room with them so you could see them, I noticed something strange.”

She pulled up a bunch of information on the computer that looked like gibberish to him.

“There is a patient in the private Queen wing of Starling General. And his description – age, height, etc. matches yours. I could only get the basics for now, but Oliver, this has to be you. I even got into the local traffic cams and it looks like Moira and Thea Queen visit the patient every few days.”

“Felicity, you have no idea that it’s me,” Oliver argued.

“Oliver – it has to be! You’re alive, I know it.”

Oliver sighed and placed his face in his hands. He didn’t want her to walk around with false hope.

“Even if for some reason that turns out to me, I may not be alive.” Felicity gave him an incredulous look.

“Why would you be a patient if you weren’t alive? You’re probably in a coma or something, and that is how you’re here as a ghost. Maybe if you prove to the powers that be that you are a good man, that you changed, you will get a second chance at life.”

Oliver let her finish her ramble. And waited a few beats before speaking. “Felicity, just because I’m a patient, doesn’t mean I’m alive. I know this sounds weird – but I could be completely brain dead. A vegetable.”

Felicity shook her head at him. “If you were a vegetable, they would have pulled the plug on you by now. Also, I would like to mention how weird it is to be having this conversation with you right now.”

Oliver smiled at her, despite the grim conversation.

“My parents were obsessed a while back about us doing living wills to prevent this very thing. Being the rebellious and combative young adult that I was, I did the opposite of what they wanted. I signed papers saying they had to keep me alive in a vegetative state for 10 years, and after that I wanted them to cryogenically freeze me.”

Felicity stared at him in shock. “Yikes, my rebellious teen years involved the goth look and faking my ID so I could count cards at the casino. You certainly had more of a flare for the dramatic.”

Oliver sighed. “I was just a spoiled and bored rich kid who was angry at my parents for reasons I can’t even remember anymore.”

Felicity gave him a sympathetic smile. “You’ve changed. You’re not that kid anymore. Besides, I’m glad you did it because it means we can work to get you back into your body.”

Oliver could not let her focus on him. She was supposed to be in the business of changing the world.

“Felicity, if I’m brain dead, there’s no going back in. And that’s not what I’m here for. I’m here to help you make the world a better place.”

Felicity scowled at him. “Well, what if I think the world would be a better place with you in it.”

“Felicity…”

She raised a hand to stop him.

“I know what you’re going to say. We shouldn’t have kissed. That we can’t be together, am I close?”

Oliver nodded. “I can’t be with someone when I’m dead, Felicity.”

“But you’re not dead!”

“Yes, I am!”

Felicity threw up her hands in frustration. “We’re just going to have to agree to disagree on that one. I am taking the job at Queen Consolidated if they offer it to me. I will go visit you in the hospital to see if there is a chance for you. And I will look in on your family so you can see them.”

“Felicity.”

“My life. My choice. And you have no choice but to follow me where you go.”

Oliver’s fingers twitched from the stress of the conversation. She was not making it easy on him to fulfill his mission.

“We are just going to have to agree to disagree on that,” he ground out, folding his arms.

“You are infuriating. I suppose this means you’re not going to kiss me again, doesn’t it?” Felicity crossed the room to stand in front of him.

“No, and please don’t ask me to.”

“Why not?”

Oliver sighed. “Because if you ask me to, I don’t think I’ll be able to stop myself.”

Felicity gave him a Cheshire Cat grin. “And what if I don’t want you to stop yourself?”

“We can’t be together. You need to find someone alive.” Felicity opened up her mouth to protest, but he cut her off. “And we are not going to continue this argument because neither of us are going to change our minds.”

Felicity glared at him. “Fine.”

And thus began the great cold war between Oliver and Felicity. Sure, they remained friendly and still talked all the time, but things were definitely different.

Oliver tried to remain as professional as possible with Felicity, who had the exact opposite idea. She became determined to seduce him. She stopped changing in the other room, and Oliver found himself having to turn his back quickly because she would just start taking her clothes off in front of him.

And what was worst of all – she stopped asking him to touch her. Completely. There were times Felicity needed help, like when she got a little too drunk at a party and barely made it home, and she would not let him come to her aid. Thankfully, there had been no incidents with nuts.

She started talking to him during the day more too, other than just in her room. She covered it up by wearing a Bluetooth headset. Oliver was frustrated because she should be focusing on finding someone alive to be with, but he had to admit he enjoyed talking to her all the time. This went on for months.

Most people just brushed off her Bluetooth habit by assuming she was an eccentric genius, but she didn’t fool one person – Donna Smoak. When Felicity travelled home after graduation to spend a week before moving to Starling, her mother became very nosy about Felicity’s conversations.

“Who are you talking to all day, baby girl? A guy by any chance” Donna waggled her eyebrows at her daughter. Felicity laughed. Her mom had always been more interested in her love life than her academic success.

“As a matter of fact, yes,” Felicity said.

Oliver scowled at her. What was she doing? She had never given details before!

Donna latched onto her daughter’s words like a fish going after bait. “Ooooh, would this guy happen to be your boyfriend?”

Oliver’s eyes widened at the older woman’s words, and even more at Felicity’s – “Yes, yes he is.”

He groaned, why was she saying this?

Donna squealed. “A boyfriend! This is wonderful! I need details – what’s his name?”

Oliver shook his head frantically at Felicity.

“Oliver, his name is Oliver.”

“What are you doing,” he hissed at her, knowing Donna couldn’t hear him. The one person in the room who could hear him was pointedly ignoring him.

Felicity’s mother pumped her for information about Oliver, and he was surprised at how much she told her about him without giving away his…condition.

When they were finally in her room for the night, he rounded on her.

“What the hell, Felicity? Why are you telling your mom about a boyfriend that doesn’t exist?”

She folded her arms, not backing down from his anger.

“You exist. I’m looking at you right now.”

“Yeah, but no one else can see me. What are you going to do when your mom finally insists on meeting me? Or if she asks more questions that might make you have to lie to her or tell her all about exactly where I am,” Oliver said.

Felicity studied him for a moment.

“That’s not the real reason you’re mad.”

He scowled at her. “Yes, it is.”

He was infuriated when she just grinned at him. “You’re mad because you’re in love with me and you can’t do anything about it.”

He sputtered at her words. “I am not in love with you!” He practically shouted it at her, and it only made her smile at him even more. Damn her. Didn’t she know the adage about not poking an angry bear?

“It’s okay, Oliver…I’m in love with you too.”

If he had a beating heart, Oliver knew it would have stopped in that moment. They could not be having this conversation. He was dead after all, dead. Even if Felicity didn’t want to believe it.

“You can’t waste your life on a dead man, Felicity.”

“It’s my life and my choice, and I choose you.”

Oliver paced her childhood bedroom in panic, trying not to take in all the features that gave him a glimpse of Felicity growing up. Her pictures on the wall, her piles of computer parts and a raggedy old bear that sat on her bed.

“Felicity, you can’t choose me. I’m dead. And don’t argue with me, we aren’t arguing about that anymore. We agreed to disagree.”  

Felicity stepped into his path and he pulled up short, not wanting to pass through her.

“I can choose you and I do. Oliver, I’m asking you to touch me.”

She stood in front of him, her eyes pleading, begging for him to giver this moment. But he couldn’t. He couldn’t do that to either of them. A minute of joy traded for an eternity of agony? Anyone knew that was a bad choice.

“No, please, don’t ask me to.”

She stepped even closer to him. A half inch closer and she would go right through him. She held her body strong and confident, but her eyes pooled with tears, revealing a small chink in her armor. “Please, Oliver. I’m asking.”

Her voice was barely audible, and her words tore at Oliver’s resolve. “Dammit! He reached forward and grabbed her face, and she sobbed in relief as he kissed her. He lifted her up and pushed her against the wall and Felicity wrapped her legs around him. They poured out the months of sexual frustration into this kiss. Heavy breathing and moans replaced any semblance of conversation. They were so caught up in their passion that they totally forgot that it was temporary – until suddenly their moment was over.

And the loss of Oliver’s arms dropped Felicity promptly on her ass. In any other circumstances, it would have been funny, but Oliver could see the acute loss of their connection was impacting Felicity as much as it was him. It felt like he had been torn in two.

“Never again,” he said hoarsely. Felicity started crying, and Oliver shattered to pieces. He wished that he could hold her.

“Will you at least admit how you feel about me now? The last minute has made that pretty obvious.”

Oliver’s shoulders slumped. Why couldn’t she accept the situation they were in. “The only thing the last few minutes has made obvious is that we can never do that again. We can’t do that to ourselves when there is no hope. You have to move on and find someone you can be with, who can make love to you without dropping you on the floor. Who can hold you when you cry.”

“I can’t move on. I don’t want anyone else.”

Oliver sighed. “You aren’t going to budge on this, are you.”

Felicity shook her head sadly.

“Well, then, I guess there’s only one thing to do.”

“Oliver Queen, if you are going to suggest we go back to you acting all grumpy and professional you can just save your breath. If you have breath, that is.”

He was thankful at least that she had stopped crying.

“Nope, it means I will go along with this plan of yours to see my body. I know you think this will fix something, but I’m hoping it will give you some closure.”

She smiled at him.

“But don’t get your hopes up,” he added.

“Does this mean you will stop pretending you don’t have feelings for me?”

“I will admit that there is…something between us. But Felicity, we can’t do this again. The kissing…the touching…it’s just too…”

“Hard? And I don’t mean that the dirty way. Or maybe I do. Ugh, please stop me from talking.”

For the first time in months, Oliver laughed.

“Spend some time with your mom, and then we will head to Starling for your new job – and to visit myself as a vegetable.”

“Not a vegetable – just a person in a coma.”

“We were getting along so well; do you really want to start arguing again?”

Felicity smiled at him. “If I can’t do my favorite thing, which is kissing you, I will do my second – annoy you to death by arguing with you.”

Oliver gave her the most disgruntled expression he could muster, and this time it was Felicity’s turn to laugh.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed! Drop a comment and let me know what you think!

**Author's Note:**

> Crazy, right? Fear not, Part 2 will be out on Monday or Tuesday. I hope you enjoyed. Drop a comment and let me know what you think.


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